Microsoft CRM Customization: Integration with third party SQL Application/Database

Microsoft CRM Client Relationship Management package from Microsoft Business Solutions was initially designed to be customizable with Microsoft Visual Studio.Net and one of its programming languages C#.Net or VB.Net. You can use ADO.Net, Web Service, Transact SQL scripting and stored procedures, deploy such SQL Server tools as Linked Server to all ODBC/OLEDB compliant database, including ORACLE, Sybase, Ingress, DB2, Unidata, Pervasive SQL, Ctree and even Lotus Notes/Domino. In this small article we would like to give you the clue on programming the integration with SQL third party Database.

First use Microsoft CRM SDK to initiate communication with Microsoft CRM, we have it in C#:

String[] arr1 = coll.AllKeys;

int loop1, loop2;

for (loop1 = 0; loop1 0?1:arr1.Length); loop1++)

{

String[] arr2 = coll.GetValues(arr1[loop1]);

for (loop2 = 0; loop2 < arr2.Length; loop2++)

{

strAccountId = arr2[loop2].Replace("}",null);

strAccountId = strAccountId.Replace("{",null);

}

}

if (Page.IsPostBack==false)

{

// Server should be set with the name of the platform Web server

string Server = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ServerName"];

// VirtualDirectory should be set with the name of the Microsoft

// CRM Virtual Directory on the platform Web server

string VirtualDirectory = "mscrmservices";

string strDir = "http://" + Server + "/" + VirtualDirectory + "/";

// BizUser proxy object

Microsoft.CRM.Proxy.BizUser oBizUser = new Microsoft.CRM.Proxy.BizUser ();

oBizUser.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

oBizUser.Url = strDir + "BizUser.srf";

// CRMAccount proxy object

Microsoft.CRM.Proxy.CRMAccount account = new Microsoft.CRM.Proxy.CRMAccount ();

account.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

account.Url = strDir + "CRMAccount.srf";

Then you use ADO.Net for calling stored procedure with parameters to do the integration job:

try

{

string SQLStatement="ICS_UpdateAccountPrivate '"+

strAccountId +"' , '" + this.TextBoxWorkPerformed.Text +

"' , "+doubleEncode(System.Double.Parse(this.TextBoxAnnualRevenue.Text))+" , "+

intEncode(System.Int32.Parse(this.TextBoxNumberOfEmployees.Text.Replace(",","")))+" , "+

doubleEncode(System.Double.Parse(this.TextBoxAverageGrowthRate.Text))+" , "+

"'"+this.DropDownListOwnership.SelectedItem.Text +"' , "+

intEncode(System.Int32.Parse(this.RadioButtonList.SelectedItem.Value))+" , "+

intEncode(System.Int32.Parse(this.TextBoxCredit.Text.Replace(",","")))+" , '"+

this.TextBoxComments.Text+"'";

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection tmpConnection =

new System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection(ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ConnectionStringICS"]

);

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: 1-866-528-0577 andrewk@albaspectrum.com.

akarasev@albaspectrum.com

 

ERP Role in selling your mid-size business Microsoft Great Plains and CRM example

If you own the mid-size business and actively work in it as executive manager or lead, say marketing, you probably know exactly what needs to be done on the daily basis to keep it running. However, in many cases this business critical knowledge exists in your head only. This means that if you would like to sell your business it has little value without your participation. So, ahead of the selling time you should formalize the business to make it work within the systems and rules, independent of people. Lets consider the parts we will need.
Functional Diagram. Well one may think that he doesnt have to reinvent the wheel, but we think that this is the only possible way to start from the top level of formalization. Functional diagram should show the process of getting new customer as a prospect, the sales process up to the closing, then customer order executing. And this diagram should reflect the interaction of your departments and key employees/positions.
Sales Control. When you want to formalize sales you are looking for the system, which allows you to distribute leads to your sales people and then have a tight monitoring of the closing rates and the quality of the closed prospects by salesperson. This system will allow you to create formal position: Sales or Marketing director, who can generate new business for the company through this Sales automation system. In our opinion this is 60% of the formalization success.
Order Execution. You need standard ERP to control order fulfillment. Usually such a system is implemented on one of the Accounting applications platforms. In the case of small and mid-size business, we would encourage you to map to your functional diagram, described above and clarify all your needs with the consultant, who will help you with the implementation. Order Execution automation will allow you to introduce another formal position Controller.
CRM/ERP market. You could find variety of the systems on the market. Here you need to stick to the quality rules. When you implement the computer system you should probably take the leaders on the market and be sure that they will stay or get additional market share in the future. In the case of mid-size business in our opinion you should be selecting between two leaders: Microsoft Business Solutions with its ERP: Great Plains, Navision, Solomon, Microsoft CRM, and Best Software with their MAS 5000
Microsoft Great Plains & CRM. These two systems are integrated and allow you to implement Sales Control and Order Execution, if you decide to stake on Microsoft brand.

You can always have us help you with the implementation & customization. Call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918.

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving clients in Chicago, California, Texas, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana, Michigan, Florida, Canada, UK, Australia, South Africa and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

CRM -- Turning Customers Into Clients

Estimates that 20 percent of customers account for 80 percent of total revenues in some businesses is a wake-up call! Finding new business a climate like that is expensive, and often unrewarding. As Barry Stamos points out in 'Best' Customers: More Profitable Relationships (Email Marketing Newsletter), Why spend resources attracting new customers until optimizing the profitability of your client relationships?

Estimates that 20 percent of customers account for 80 percent of total revenues in some businesses is a wake-up call! Finding new business a climate like that is expensive, and often unrewarding. As Barry Stamos points out in 'Best' Customers: More Profitable Relationships (Email Marketing Newsletter), Why spend resources attracting new customers until optimizing the profitability of your client relationships?

More Bang for Your Buck

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is organizing and maintaining strategic connections with clients and customers to turn that sorry 20/80 stat on its ear.

Successful CRM is about competing in the relationship dimension explains Bob Thompson, CEO, CustomerThink Corporation, Not as an alternative to having a competitive product or reasonable price- but as a differentiator. If your competitors are doing the same thing you are (as they generally are), product and price won't give you a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage. But if you can get an edge based on how customers feel about your company, it's a much stickier--sustainable--relationship over the long haul.

Putting Clients First

Service is a client-centric activity, but theres plenty in it for you, too. For small-business owners (SBOs) and independent professionals, developing and managing healthy client relationships and providing superior service increases cross-selling and up-selling opportunities, and can spin off endless chains of high-leverage qualified referrals. Building on your client base also increases profitability, by cutting front-end marketing time and costs; but its the quality of those relationships that affects persistency, enhances your professional reputation, and can lead to future business from your hard-earned clients.

Technically, of course, when you make a sale, you dont have a client, you have a customer. A customer is someone who buys from you once; a client is someone who will buy from you, again and again. Clients who trust you and your expertise will come to you (and maybe only you) for your products or services. A client relationship is one in which both the buyer and seller agree that the first transaction was not a one-time event.

Client Relationship Management goals are clear:

Being seen as confident, competent professional;

Proactively servicing your existing business and providing extra value;

Meeting additional needs as clients situations change, and

Earning prestige recommendations or introductions to other qualified prospects.

The buyer must accept Client status, however, its not a label that can be stuck to the buyer by the seller. Client relationships must be cultivated and nurtured to stay healthy. To borrow a line from former New York City mayor, Ed Koch, simply asking clients, How am I doing? is a great way to find out.

CRM is typically characterized by continuous contact, shared expectations and mutually beneficial relationships evolving over time. The post-sale period must be carefully managed. Thank-you messages are courteous and business-like; progress reports may be useful in some situations.

Make a point of contacting clients informally several times a year, in addition to holiday messages and regularly scheduled service contacts. It can add up, but todays SBOs and independent professionals have a really simple and powerful way of delivering much more value to clients with less effort, since virtually all client service contacts can be automated.

E-Communications Its Expected!

People have come to expect email service notifications and other communicationseverything from thank-you notes, birthday and holiday greetings to cross- and up-selling messaging. If youre not using automation technology and a Web presence to the max, youre at a disadvantage (because your competitors are!).

At the same time, a lot of businesses are slow to acknowledge customer inquiries and service requests. Business research firm, Jupiter Research (http://www.jupiterresearch.com), found that nearly one-third of companies either took three days or longer to respond to customers' email inquiries or never responded at all. Bad on them!

But that can all be fixed with automated messaging built into e-mail systems. Meeting basic customer service needs in these ways improves persistency and client loyalty.

Just as understanding the people you're looking for makes it easier to find more of them, a markets unique make-up can help you tailor appropriate client communications. As consumers become increasingly sophisticated, so does the benefit of targeting client communications, not just promotional messages, to their needs, interests and buying behaviors. With today's technology you can readily customize client communications to each market segment.

Smart CRM Another Way to Succeed

CustomerThink Corporations Bob Thompson: Said another way, you can succeed with CRM by being SMART: Define a customer-centric Strategy; use appropriate Metrics ; ensure your organization is Aligned with your objectives; Redesign work processes as needed; and use appropriate Technology tools as enablers. But it all starts by putting your customers first and creating a better relationship with them than your competitors offer.

Want More? Send questions and comments to w.willard3@knology.net.

Bill Willard has been writing high-impact marketing and sales training for over 30 yearsbut as Will Rogers put it: "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. Through interactive, Web-based "Do-While-Learning" programs, e-Newsletters and straight-talking articles, Bill helps small-business owners and independent professionals get the job done.

Microsoft CRM Integration & Customization: Share

Boris Makushkin

MS CRM is very close to document workflow automation, including Microsoft Office documents: Words, Excel, etc. The document workflow was perfectly automated about 10 years ago in Lotus Notes Domino. In this small article we describe the solution based on MS CRM integration with MS SharePoint.

Microsoft CRM is new player on CRM applications market and it is gaining its market share. Having different paradigm in its design (it stakes on Microsoft OS and technologies and completely disregards alternative platform, such as UNIX, Linux, Oracle, etc. based). Microsoft CRM market is very diversified: from small (5 users) to large (several hundred MS CRM User licenses) and it serves variety of industries: Transportation, Logistics, Lawyers, Pension Funds, High-Tech, and many others. Deploying technologies, like Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000, SQL Server, Crystal Reports Enterprise, Biztalk, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Great Plains and Navision in close future - makes CRM a beloved system for Microsoft oriented IT departments.

Let's go right to the topic.

Major issue with storing documents in MS CRM in the form of attachments to Activity is inability to work on these attached files in cooperation with other colleagues, who do not have to use CRM. When several service people serve requests from the same client this is required. Currently you can use alternative way when you store office documents in the folders of your file system and when modifying document, you save it and reattach to CRM. This is inconvenient, because first it requires all your editing users to have CRM licenses, which delays CRM implementation.

We seem increasing popularity of document storage systems, like Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle Files, etc. Such systems, being implemented gives you time savings, related to documents revisions and versioning, approval cycles and workflows, web access through web-portals systems and the like.

The target of our product is Microsoft SharePoint integration with MS CRM for document storage. Let's take a look at the high level technical realization details:

• Main modification from the MS CRM side is standard system behavior change when you open attachment in Activity. Standard unmodified CRM suggests you to store documents in the file system. Modified version sores document in SharePoint Document Library (the required library is subject for setup by MS CRM system administrator) or keep it in MS CRM as is (for documents of minor importance). From the moment of saving the document in SharePoint Document Library it is not stored in MS CRM CRM will now store only the link/reference to the document. Also you are given the ability to open and modify the document at the place of opening, which speeds up MS CRM user performance substantially.

• Table, storing the links to the documents sits in separate database and doesn't deal with MS CRM tables (you know that you are banned to do structure changes in MS CRM db)

• Document saving into MS SharePoint process occurs in MS CRM and with its assistance SharePoint bridge, which does addition and update for the existing document into destination Document Library with MS SharePoint Web Services calls

• Upon the addition into Document Library, MS CRM SharePoint bridge registers the document in the special table for the future data extraction or notification mechanism registration

• Then, interested users can work with the documents just using MS Office 2003 or other programs/editing tools, assuming these tools have access to MS SharePoint

• Feedback is provided by MS SharePoint Event Handler component. This is special handler, inspecting document change status, transferred from MS CRM to document storage (SharePoint), and report Activity owner on the changes with home page notifications (User home page in MS CRM). User in turn can review the history of the document editing - who, when and where is the change

• Opening Activity, where document is "attached", and in fact placed into MS SharePoint Document Library, and pressing opening button, MS CRM user gets live version of the data

• This approach allows you seamless work with MS CRM document in the whole informational space of your company

• Additional enhancements to this product might be document library management directly from MS CRM (web interface - meaning remotely), administrative interface for MS Sharepoint documents revision, ability to create reports on the document storage status, rights/access management (Author, Reader, Contributor etc) from MS CRM, portal pages integration into MS CRM to name a few.

Happy programming, implementation, customization and modification! If you want us to do the job call use 1-630-961-5918, 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Boris Makushkin is Lead Software Developer in Alba Spectrum Technologies USA nationwide Oracle, Navision, Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Georgia, Florida, New York, Canada, Australia, UK, Russia, Europe and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Oracle, Unix, Microsoft CRM SDK, Navision, C#, VB.Net, SQL developer.

BorisM@albaspectrum.com

Customer Relationships How To Build Them

The Gurus all tell us this is the way to sell on the web
or this is the way. New ways and techniques are daily
mailed to my inbox telling me if I just do this then
I will be a success selling on the web.

However, the psychology of selling everything goes through
A simple process that is not a secret. The formula has been
taught us ever since we have first been on the web.
You know this secret if you are a newbie or a
seasoned veteran selling on the web.

First you must get the customers attention. How do you
do this? First of all the customers on the web are searchers
by that I mean they get on their computers, go to a search
engine and search for specific things they want to know about
or buy. So it makes sense that your site title, where you
are ranked on the search engine and your description of your
site are the first ways to get their attention. Ok, say you
have done a good job of that so you get them to your website.

You are still trying to capture their attention. So snappy
headlines and good content will get their attention. They are
not ready to buy yet. You shouldn't even be trying to sell them
at this point. What you present on the website will either
encourage them to come back or they will just click away and
never return. So not only good content about the subject
that they are looking for is essential. How about a five day
course. This accomplishes two things it gets them to give you
their email and you are giving them good content. Make this
course personal and dynamic and you have gained trust. Perhaps
you first get them to join your ezine. Where again you get their
email, give them really good content and have a chance to interact
with them. Again you are building trust and forming a relationship
with a real person. This is not instant. Relationships take time.

After you have built a relationship you can then recommend to them
products, and services. But even then you cannot sell to them if
they do not need your product. If you don't believe me try selling
ice in the artic. So try and target your market. Find out what your
customers need and then fill that need.

The last thing you are going to do is to send your prospects to your
product page. This is the one of the most important pages you
will ever write. It has to tell them what your product can do for
them. How it will change their lives to use your product. In other
words make them really want to buy the product.

Now you are at a point in your sales that you will be sucessful. But
to recap you can not go from get the customer's attention to sales
selling is a relationship between two human beings and relationships
take time. Judi Singleton is the publisher of Jassmines

Journal
A targeted daily ezine.
You can subscribe at http://www.motherearthpublishing.com